ABSTRACT
In the early modern period, the Aegean Sea – a frontier between the Christian and the Muslim worlds – was the scene of a protracted diplomatic struggle on what was believed to be the eve of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse. Ironically, the contenders were themselves all Catholic (or Latin): on the one hand, Venice and, in the eighteenth century, France, and on the other, the Holy See. To their various ends, the rivals vied for control of the small Latin enclaves that were established in and around the Aegean in the wake of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In particular, the essay looks at the episcopal career of Pietro Martire de Stefani, who was charged with the historic Latin community of Naxos in 1750. As shown by his failure to assert the will of his foreign patrons, the interests of Rome, Versailles, and the local Catholics were basically incompatible.
